“No one will ever pay you what you’re worth, they will only ever pay you what they THINK you’re worth… but you CAN shape their thinking!”, said Casey Brown in her TED Talk opening statement. What a brilliant reminder, is it not? Especially to us women! I often borrow this sentence from Casey when I hear a client say: “Oh, Alena, why should I go out there and brag about my achievements? My work will speak for itself!”
Good luck with that, I think to myself. The story typically goes on with these kinds of complaints: “It’s so frustrating, no one seems to notice my contribution! Would you believe that I put in all these hours into getting the new client account and I didn’t even get the credit for it?!”
Yes, I would absolutely believe that! We women often complain about not being seen, heard, or acknowledged at work and although this might be true in some cases, more often than not, YOU are actually the primary source of your frustrations.
The Problem is Threefold: We have too high expectations of our managers (or others) to notice all our contributions and achievements.
Now, think about this, to what extent is your boss involved in your day-to-day activities? Do they know what you do on a daily basis? Would you want them to know and closely monitor your every move? Unless you enjoy being micromanaged, probably not. Besides, your boss is often under pressure and has tons of other stuff to worry about. So, how about this? Instead of relying on your boss’s ability to notice and applaud all your successes in real-time, why not adopt a much more effective (and elegant) approach of proactively and regularly sharing your achievements with them. You will make their job of managing YOU a little easier and as a side effect, your star performance can NOT possibly go unnoticed 🙂
We (and this is especially true for women) feel uneasy about self-promotion and so we either avoid it or we sell ourselves short.
If that sounds like you, why don’t we talk about promotion and selling for a moment? Where would any successful company be without effectively marketing their products and services? If Apple didn’t do such an excellent job in their marketing, the latest iPhone model would never stand a chance of making it into your handbag. At the workplace, you are THE BRAND. If you want to become a successful brand, I’m sorry to break it to you but without some promotion, this won’t be easy.
And if that wasn’t enough, we (women) happen to be exceptionally proficient at selfdoubt!
Combine this with the points above and there you have it. Many women do not have the visibility that they want and deserve. They do not proactively seek more senior job assignments or jobs that they’d really love to have (“because NO, I am not qualified enough!”). And, they do not (or not effectively) negotiate for the salary that they want. Speaking of which, it is a known fact that women are great negotiators – that is – if they negotiate on behalf of a group (their team, their community, etc…). When it comes to advocating for themselves, that’s an entirely different story!
Where to start…
So, my dear friend, are you just like so many other women in business (no matter their seniority), putting off that long-overdue conversation about your salary? Because the very thought of opening up the subject with your boss sends a shiver down your spine?
Or, do you have a job interview coming up and wonder how to best “sell yourself” without feeling uneasy about it or sounding arrogant?
Well then, here are a few tips for you. Since this is a big topic which I could talk about for a very (very!) long time, in this article I’ll focus on the most important ones. Here is a question for you:
How Much are you Worth?
And I am not talking about your net worth 🙂 I am talking about your value the value that you bring to the table derived from who you are and what you’re all about; what you know; what you can do for your customers; your talent, experience and expertise acquired as a result of your personal and career trajectory.
Have you ever thought about that? If not, now is the time! Before you even attempt to “sell yourself” to others, you need to UNDERSTAND YOUR TRUE VALUE and sell yourself first to YOURSELF!
Let’s start by creating your very own personal value proposition. It will not only help you prepare for the uncomfortable “money” discussions but it will also serve as a powerful reminder of how awesome you actually (already) are!
Are you familiar with the term value proposition? Value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It’s the primary reason a“prospect”should buy from you. In a nutshell, a value proposition is a clear statement that:
– explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (relevancy),
– delivers a specific set of benefits (quantified value),
– tells the ideal customer why they should buy your product instead of the competition’s (unique differentiation).
We’re going to apply the same principles to YOU, THE BRAND. Ready?
Create Your Personal Value Proposition
Do you prefer a Word or an Excel file? You choose! Open a brand-new document and get ready to brainstorm some ideas. I like to split the file into different categories:
1. What makes you YOU: This is where you want to highlight your positive traits and qualities, your skills and abilities, your qualifications, what you’re good at, your interests and passions, and anything else that you have acquired through experience and practice.
2. What do you offer: That’s the easiest bit it’s about the type of work you do. What’s your job? Do you offer services, sell products? What kind?
3. Key benefits of what you offer: This is an important extension of the two previous points. It doesn’t matter what you do, what matters is the value it adds to others. How do you make your client’s life easier? Do you solve a problem for a client or do you enable gains? Do you help your clients look better? Feel better? Earn more money or save money? Protect your client’s business from cyber-attacks? Be as concrete as possible, and try to quantify the value (e.g. the project I led has contributed to a 15% increase of the company’s net revenues in the first year only).
4. Why do you do what you do: What is your WHY? Your reasons for doing what you’re doing (which I assume you have?). What motivates you and drives your actions? Which values form the way you live and work? Your WHY gives others more information about you and what matters to you. That can be hugely inspiring and increase the “attractiveness” of YOU, THE BRAND!
5. What makes you trustworthy and credible: How can you prove your value? Give us reasons to believe you. This is where you should list all your important successes: achievements, awards, endorsements, testimonials, publications, media appearances, intellectual property, etc.
6. Last but not least, why YOU: What’s the prime reason customers should work with/ buy from you? What is your unique skill set, your distinctive contribution? What do you do that no one else does? What makes you better qualified to serve your clients? How do you position yourself vis-à-vis your competitors? What’s your story? Remember, value comes from your differences, your unique contribution.
There you have it. The very first draft of your personal value proposition. Now that you have it all written down, how do you feel? Can you see all that you’ve accomplished up to this point in your life? Very impressive, isn’t it!
For this document to be of true value, you need to update it regularly. You might want to designate a few minutes at the end of each month to reflect on any important milestones or successes, anything that you’re proud of, or any idea or success story that you might want to share with others when the opportunity presents itself. If you don’t keep track, it’s likely that 6 months down the line, all these stories will have evaporated from your head.
So, next time doubts start creeping in: “Am I good enough to ask for this money? To say this about myself? Am I not being totally ridiculous?”; just look at this document and remind yourself that YES, you are good enough! You have value! And the more you leverage that value, the bigger your contribution in this world…
Market Yourself Effectively
Having your personal value proposition is only the first step. What’s next? You want to think of strategies to market your value effectively.
In the same way that you prepared your value proposition, you can put together your personal branding strategy. Start by clarifying your objectives what exactly do you want from your branding efforts? Is it higher visibility across your organisation? Building a powerful network with other experts in your industry? Career advancement? More money? Be as clear as possible.
Next, you want to think about who you wish to target with your personal branding, through which channels, and what specific initiatives or activities you want to engage in in order to support your branding efforts. Personal branding strategy is a chapter on its own but for now, let me highlight a few points.
One of the most obvious channels for our branding efforts are meetings with our management yet so many people don’t take full advantage of them.
The typical error is waiting for that big yearly review meeting with your boss (or any other key stakeholders) to talk about your achievements. That’s too little, too late. I recommend that you make it a regular practice. Be proactive and propose regular status updates or check-ins with your management.
Regular meetings are your opportunities to share the progress of the different projects you’re involved in, ask for feedback, and to highlight any important milestones or achievements along the way. This sends a clear signal to your management that you’re serious about what you’re doing and that you want to make a contribution. And guess what, one of these regular “status update meetings” can become “THE” meeting during which you ask about advancement opportunities or your next salary review. Since you made it a regular exercise and your management has been kept up-to-date with what is going on, your request won’t come as a complete shock to them and you won’t feel as awkward bringing it up.
The next big challenge is the actual communication. WHAT do you say? How do you raise these somewhat sensitive issues? How do you share your accomplishments without sounding obnoxious? And also, HOW do you say it? I am talking about your “presence” because your presence speaks louder than your words! I hope that you have a compelling presence that represents YOUR BRAND marvellously!
These are just a few ideas to help you discover your value and market yourself. I have tons of free resources on my website to navigate different managerial challenges and so feel free to check them out. I also have a template for the Personal Value Proposition and Branding Strategy. If you’d like me to share them with you, just drop me an email.
Remember, you will only be able to market yourself effectively if you truly believe in and value yourself first. No years of experience, skills, or talents will compensate for a lack of self-worth and confidence.
If you want to know how I or my program SHELeads can help you with your growth as a person and a leader, let me know. I’ll be happy to hop on a quick exploratory call with you. Wishing you the best of success!
By Alena Huberova
Trainer, Speaker and Founder of SHELeads
Helping women know their inner strength,
find the powerful leader within and unapologetically
lead THEIR way!
alenahuberova.com
alena@alenahuberova.com
ABOUT ALENA HUBEROVA
Alena has a professional background in sales, marketing and communication in a variety of sectors including IT, Travel and Tourism, Wellness and Beauty. In her work with clients, Alena combines corporate experience & professional expertise with her training in Emotional Intelligence, NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP), Coaching & Mentoring and Meditation. She lived and worked in 5 different countries across Europe and Asia.
Amongst her achievements is speaking at the TEDx UNYP 2017 conference, winning second place in the 2018 Czech National Championship of Public Speaking, and in collaboration with Presenation.com, coaching X.GLU, a team from the Czech Technical University to win the world title at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 in Seattle, USA.
AlenaHuberova.com